


Startale Undervalley

by UnholyKrow



Series: Startale Stuff [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bittybones (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Birdie comes from our 'verse, Birdie has health issues, Birdie has magic and hates it, Birdie hides their past as much as they can, Birdie is also a self isolated disaster of a mage and thats okay, Black has three seperate jobs someone come save him, Culture Shock, Dancing, Doc is absolutely going to prescribe cuddles lmao, Edge is a self isolated disaster of a wizard and we love him, Everyone has complicated feelings, Flashbacks, G's gonna fight the ghost, G's many magical hands, Knife Wounds, Librarian!Sans, Mage OC - Freeform, Misunderstandings, More tags to be added, Multiverse, Nightmares, Nurse!G, One-Sided Attraction, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Sugar is going to be birdies best friend whether they like it or not, also G is awkward and a disaster and we love him, bartender!mutt, blacksmith!Blackberry, carpenter!papyrus, fisherman!Stretch, g's college hoodie, haunted bathroom, injuries, minor edits have been made, no beta we die like men, one sided enemies to friends, technically a stardew valley crossover but like if the skeletons scared everyone out of the town, that birdie is totally not gonna give back, touch starved birdie, town meetings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 11,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22189747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnholyKrow/pseuds/UnholyKrow
Summary: After running away from their disaster of a home, and away from their source of shame of being known as a fangirl in a world were the well known Undertale world converged with theirs, Birdie winds up in Stardew.What could possibly go wrong?(WIP Summary, suggestions welcome)Updates once a week
Relationships: Papyrus/OC, papyrus & oc, sans & oc, sans/OC
Series: Startale Stuff [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622410
Comments: 35
Kudos: 62





	1. Prologue

Breath fogged up the glass of the bus window as Birdie pressed their face against it. The southern native was eternally glad that they had thought to put on several layers of sweaters under their jacket because despite how warm it was inside the bus that they had been riding for hours through several cities and towns, they were still cold from the last time they left the bus for a quick bathroom and food break when they had stopped into one of the smaller towns.

Birdie sighed and closed their eyes, just for a moment, and pressed their forehead against the glass. They would be arriving to Stardew Valley in just a few short hours, probably after midnight. They had to stay awake just in case if they slept through the bus stop, and considering that the only thing they had left of their funds to get there was a crumpled twenty dollars, they couldn’t really afford to miss the bus stop.

So of course, they fell asleep fairly quickly.

_Birdie, who was going by a different name, was worrying at their lip. The TV had been turned off, but they had seen enough to know that something was wrong. Monsters, Mages, Creatures that were neither, were all real._

_Their heart beat fast, painfully. A feeling of overwhelming dread settled into their stomach. Silently, they turned and went back down the hallway, into their room before ~~{Redacted}~~ saw them. They needed to do research on what exactly had happened, and they needed it done yesterday._

A light touch to Birdie's shoulder startled them awake. They quickly looked around, scanning for ~~{Redacted}~~ , but he wasn’t here. The bus driver quickly pulled her hand back with an apologetic smile.

“Hey kiddie, we’re at your stop,” she said, “Are you gonna be okay sweetheart?”

“um, yeah, thanks,” Birdie rasped out, back aching and still groggy from her unexpected nap. “thank you, for- um- waking me.”

The driver smiled kindly at Birdie, and walked away, back to the front of the bus, “This is the last stop for the night, I hope you have a place to stay, this town doesn’t have any inns.”

Birdie looked out the window, seeing nothing but pitch-black darkness. If her timing was right, it was probably after midnight. A day and a half. It had taken them less than two days to get here and yet, they had spent the majority of their funds. It was strange, how quickly things could change.

They slung their backpack onto their shoulder, ignoring the pain in their back and in their arms, and stood. Slowly, they made their way off of the bus.

Birdie knew that it was dark and cold, but they weren’t prepared for just _how_ dark and cold it was. They could barely see their hand if they stretched it out in front of them, and that was only if they squinted. The bus pulled away from the bus stop and rumbled down the street as Birdie stood shivering in the cold, more than a little lost, confused, and stressed. There last chance to turn around and go back south had just left as if it was even an option.

Blindly digging through their backpack, they searched for their phone, which, hopefully, should still be alive but not for long if they used the flashlight on it. The battery had been under half the last time they looked and had been too scared to look at it again after receiving a text.

With a stroke of luck, they felt their phone case and quickly fished it out from the bottom of the bag. The screen was blindingly bright and the time was far too late for them to be awake, but they were able to turn the light on and find their way.

The walk was surprisingly short, _“Just forward, and take a right. The path should take you straight to the house. But you do know that no one has lived in it since my great-grandpa, right? There’s no electricity or running water. Well, besides the stream.”_

“ _I’ll be fine, it’ll be better than my current situation.”_

“ _That’s true. But you know I’ll worry about you anyway, right?”_

Birdie touched a metal doorknob, the porch creaked and groaned under them, sounding as if it was about to collapse. They turned the knob and slammed their hip against the rotting wood when it didn’t budge. With a concerning crack, the door slammed open, and Birdie stumbled into their new home. They sneezed as the dust stirred up.

“This is better than down south,” they muttered to themselves, coughing into their elbow, “This is better than running into video game characters.”


	2. Chapter one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I know I should be staying on schedule and waiting till tomorrow to post, but like... what is one day early?  
> Warnings: Panic attack, accidental sleep deprivation, skeleton.

The night seemed to never end. The house had no bed, and barely had a table and a chair. There was a fireplace in the back of the one-roomed house, but it looked so filthy and full of cobwebs that even if Birdie knew how to light a fire, they were too afraid of it being a safety hazard.

The house was falling apart. Stars peeked through the ceiling where it was missing boards, and they had more than once nearly tripped over said boards. Every time the wind blew, it made a sharp whistle when it blew through the cracks in the walls. The door was barely hanging on to its hinges from when they almost broke it to get in. Birdie was almost certain that whatever animals were outside if they were determined and smart enough, they could easily get in.

It was impossible to fall asleep in this house, it was much to unfamiliar, much too stressful, much too dangerous to even consider falling asleep in. All Birdie could really do was sit in the creaky, wobbly chair and wait for the sun to rise.

It felt as it time had stopped in that cabin, completely undisturbed as everything continued as it had before Birdie moved in. Slowly, almost unnoticeable, the room began to lighten, going from pitch black, to a slightly lighter black, to light enough that Birdie could start making things out in the house. There was a counter that went from the front wall to the back wall, where it turned into an ‘L’ shape until it touched the fireplace that was in the middle of the wall.

There was a large window next to the door, with a few broken panes, and two more on either side of the fireplace. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, only interrupted by Birdie's footprints leading in from the door.

Birdie slowly blinked, their mind fogged over from how sleep deprived they were. That had been the longest night they ever had, and now they were certain that they’re about to have the longest day they will ever have. The house needed some major work before it was livable, and this was the only place they had that they could stay in.

Birdie ignored the pressure behind their eyes and got up. Hopefully, _hopefully_ , there would be a shop open this early in the town, and they could hopefully, maybe, get food.

They gripped the back of the chair tightly as they stood, the room spun around them. They closed their eyes for a moment, letting the dizziness pass before leaving the house.

Birdie opened their eyes and sighed deeply. Their limbs didn’t want to cooperate, they wanted nothing more than to find a spot to curl up in and fall asleep, but they had things they needed to get done, and first on the list was getting food.

They opened the door and hopped back as the door fell to the ground with a loud bang, sending dust flying everything. They clutched at their sweater, right above their heart, and tried their best to calm their breathing down. Panicking right now wasn’t going to help them any.

“Shit,” they swore and added ‘fixing the door’ to their mental list of things to do. For now though, they were going to have to leave it be and go into town before the day really started. If they were lucky, they would only have to talk to the cashier at the local grocery store, if it was open.

The porch was creaky, the floorboards wobbly and broken in spots. Birdie shuddered and grimaced in fear as they watched something crawl along in the shadows under there. They couldn’t tell what it was and they certainly didn’t want to find out.

The immediate front yard was a wreck, a stone fence was in ruins, and the grass looked to be taller than them. Hidden between the tall stalks of grass were large rocks, larger than what they could currently pick up without hurting themself. The yard was yet another thing that they needed to work on.

The pressure behind their eyes started to burn. They were fine. They had to be fine. They couldn’t afford to not be fine right now.

Breathing in, Birdie shoved their hands into their pockets and stepped off the creaky porch. Their shoulders were up to their ears as they tried to fight off the cold wind, carefully pretending that the rustling they were hearing was coming from the trees.

Despite everything, it was starting to look like a beautiful fall day. The sun was barely peeking over the mountaintops, casting orange rays onto the grey clouds. It was nowhere near high enough to start warming up yet, but Birdie could at least appreciate its beauty.

The sudden switch from walking on dirt to stepping on stone startled Birdie into looking where they were walking. The town square was completely empty, not a soul to be seen. Looking around, Birdie could already tell that the local grocery store was probably the only store in the town.

As they came closer, they could see that the building neighboring it was a clinic of some kind, the sign on the door was flipped over to [Open!], with its days and hours right under it. It looked as if it was open every day, all day.

Sighing, Birdie tensed, pushing open the door to the grocery store, a little jingle letting whoever was working know that they had entered. Anxiety curled up right next to dread, making itself right at home. Their throat was beginning to hurt from how tight they held themself. Furrowing their brows, they didn’t see anyone at the register, but they did hear a sugar-sweet voice call out that they would be with them in a minute. His voice was muffled like he wasn’t in the main part of the store.

Instincts screamed that something was off, wrong, definitely _not right._

Birdie chose to ignore their instincts, they couldn’t afford to listen to them right now.

Picking up a small basket, Birdie began to go up and down the aisles, carefully picking out a few different bagged beans, like lentils and pinto beans, and several cans of hardy soup, and a couple of reusable containers, and a single pot they could cook the stuff in. It was going to use up the rest of their money.

“Isn’t It Early- Oh.” Birdies eyes widened as a tall, lanky looking skeleton turned the corner and stood at the end of the aisle, “You’re Not Black.”

He had to be at least seven feet tall, and he wore a pale pink apron that had “Sugar” stitched onto it in cursive. The store lights cast a glint onto his braces. It was hard to look away from his face.

“uh,” Birdies mouth went dry, their chest ached and suddenly the sense of “everything-is-wrong-you’re-in-danger” went out like a flickering lightbulb that gave its best effort and all they could feel was an overwhelming feeling of DREAD, “uuhh,”

His eyelights flickered down to their chest, swiftly followed by a brief, twisting pain.

“Miss,” in the back of Birdie's mind, they couldn’t help but point out how _pretty_ he looked, “Miss you need to breathe, I heard that’s very important for humans.”

“i-i-i-” the hands around their throat squeezed tighter, “i _can’t.”_

In the next second, he had said something, and then he had disappeared.

They sunk down onto the floor, cotton clogged their ears and their head was getting really warm, uncomfortably warm. Their eyes started to flutter close, it was getting really hard to keep them open.

Birdie couldn’t tell how long they had been like this, or when the peachy colored eyelights had come back, or even when the mint-colored eyelights joined them, but it felt as if eons had passed.

Birdies eyes shut one last time, their mind too worn to stay awake any longer.


	3. Chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im trying to keep to posting a chapter once a week but its surprisingly hard because I want you guys to have this now and its already finished so like why not  
> anyways, enjoy!  
> Warnings: injuries, mentions of blood but nothing really detailed  
> Edit March 25, 2020: I'm reading through this again and I just realized that I had mentioned Sugars height in the last chapter, so he is NOT the shortest skeleton I will be going with what I have already written

Birdie woke up unpleasantly warm. Wearing a lot of layers seemed great in theory, it meant that they would be able to survive the coldness of their cabin, and could put more stuff in their bag.

Wearing a lot of layers was very good in theory, but not really so great when there was a blanket thrown on top of them that felt like it had just come out of the dryer.

They struggled to open their eyes. Heat radiated from their head, their chest. It would have been a pleasant sensation, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was too much at once, in an unfamiliar setting.

The lights finally went out, making it easier to keep their eyes open, to really start waking up but the cotton in their brain made it hard to think. The second thing they noticed, was that they felt like they were made of jelly. Like hot jelly.

Hot jelly.

A soft, disgruntled, disgusted groan escaped past their lips. So not only were they hot jelly right now, their vocal cords were coated in sand.

Once they were sitting up and lazily looking around the room they were in, probably in the clinic, they pawed at the zipper of their coat, pulling it down to the best of their abilities, with some assistance from the ghostly golden hands that had popped as soon as they showed signs of needing help.

Birdie decided that they would freak out about those at a later time, and continued to get their layers off before they were finally just wearing a once-white undershirt and too tight bandages that were a sort of rust color winding up and down their arms and around their torso. They ignored the sharp gasp and started on their pants and several layers of leggings they were wearing until they were in their sleeping leggings.

Laying back down and pulling the blanket back onto them, Birdie lightly ran their fingers on the bandage covering the front of their neck now that it wasn’t covered by the turtle neck that they had been wearing. Sighing, they curled up and faced the wall.

The fog was slowly lifting off of their mind, memories of how they got here came back to them similar to the way waves would lap at a beach. The clearest thing that came to mind was how _pretty_ the grocer was, and how _scared_ and _concerned_ he was. Birdie couldn't understand why though.

Birdie couldn’t remember any of their conversation, however, or if they even _had_ a conversation. They did remember someone talking, but it was likely that it was one-sided, considering what had happened.

They closed their eyes, sleep was calling for them again now that they had cooled off and comfortably bundled up under the fresh-out-of-the-dryer blanket. The last thing that they heard before they were pulled back into the bliss that came in the form of unconsciousness was whispering, and nearly silent footsteps.

-

Ghostly green hands gently pulled the bandages away from the human's arms, revealing clumsily stitched gashes. The wounds themselves were healing up decently enough, but it was obvious to the taller skeleton that no antibiotic had been applied, nor had the wounds been cleaned properly. Doc sighed, it had been an at-home job, done either by the patient, or someone close to them.

And, he wearily eyed the blood-stained shirt, it seemed as it wasn’t just their arms that had been slashed at.

“What’s the diagnosis, Doc?” G came up behind him, peeking at the sleeping human over his shoulder.

“From what I can see, they had been attacked,” Doc frowned at the wall, not really seeing it, “or abused. They’ve been starved so that points captivity. Honestly I don’t know how they’re alive.” he let out a long sigh.

“Hmm,” G looked up at his pseudo-brother, “Well, Sugar said that they had picked up beans, peanut butter, soup, things that could last quite a while and high in protein. I’m getting their blood work done, but I think it's likely that they have some form of hypoglycemia.”

“They were pretty pale when they came in,” Doc pondered, “And Sugar did say that they were shaking.”

G leaned over to feel the human's hands, doing his best not to disturb their sleep, “They’ve got cold hands, and they’re pretty bundled up.”

“And, evidence points to being too warm earlier,” Doc said, glancing at the pile of clothes on the ground. G snorted. “You said they were wearing a lot of layers?”

“Yep,” G drawled out, “A big coat, a couple of sweaters, a couple of shirts, pants, and _lots_ of leggings.”

“They could have been running away,” Doc remarked, rubbing at his chin. He sighed and turned to leave the room, the poor human had enough to deal with right now, they really didn’t need the two skeletons hovering over them when they woke. Especially considering how they had reacted to Sugar.

“So…?” G turned on his heel to follow his brother out of the room.

“We’ll never know until they tell, if they’re even willing to talk about it.”

The door closed behind them.

-

The next morning, still far too early for the sun to rise, Birdie woke again. Their skull pounded with a magnificent headache, nearly drowning out the dull pain that radiated from the rest of their body.

Birdie groaned, and immediately regretted it, their tongue was currently made of sand and irritated their throat. Their eyes opened against their will, but this time there was no annoyingly bright light.

Sitting up, they were relieved to notice that they didn’t feel like hot jelly this time, but the pain in their chest grew. Looking down, it became obvious that someone had redone the stitched, applied new bandages, and put them in a hospital gown that was an interesting shade of light green with a dark green plant pattern.

“You shouldn’t be sitting up,” a voice coming from the corner startled them, “Doc worked real hard patching you back up. Did you know that you should be dead?”

Despite the light coming from the night-light by their (temporary) bed, all Birdie could see of the stranger was his glowing golden eyes.

Birdie could only blink at him, it was much too soon after waking up to deal with a hostile skeleton.

“yeah, and?”


	4. Chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways I've lost control of when I post now  
> Enjoy!  
> also, if you have any stuffed animals that you hold very dear to your heart, make sure you keep them out of reach of a dog. RIP Bun, you will be missed.  
> And, before i forget, thank you Teddy_Feathers for all of your lovely comments!

Sugar sat awkwardly in the too-small chair, his knees nearly up to his shoulders, eyelights everywhere except on the human in front of him. Birdie stared at him shamelessly from their spot on the couch, curled up comically small, bundled up in the fresh-out-of-the-dryer blanket they had woken up with. Both clutched at a warm mug of goldenflower tea. The apartment was completely silent except for the sounds of Doc cooking for the three of them.

Well, technically four, but G insisted on manning the front while the three of them went upstairs for privacy and breakfast while Birdie and Sugar talked. It was a good idea, in theory, if the two of them could actually start talking, but Birdie and Sugar seemed content to sit in awkward silence, neither one willing to make the first move yet.

Doc walked past, setting down plates of food on the coffee table.

“Well this is an invigorating conversation,” he grinned and clasped his hands together, sitting on the other end of the couch. Sugar and Birdie turned to look at him with blank, unimpressed expressions on their faces, “Absolutely riveting. I am so blessed that we’re able to sit down and speak to each other like this.”

“don’t- weren’t you gonna take a plate to g?” Birdie muttered into their mug before taking an experimental sip of the tea. They blinked at it, finding the taste to be a pleasant surprise. They had been picky about what they drank once upon a time ago and had been a huge tea drinker so having someone prepare a mystery tea and actually _liking_ it came as a shock to them.

“Yes- well,” Doc spluttered, then silently picked up one of the plates and went downstairs.

Sugar snorted, “Well, I Am Relieved To See That You’re Feeling Better Now.”

Birdie gave them a strained smile, that probably looked more like a grimace but at least they tried, “get-getting there. not re-really better yet but-but definitely getting there. um… i’d-i’d like to apologize, for the way i reacted when-n I saw y-you.”

Sugar was taken aback, “No! No, Sorry, You Don’t Have Anything To Apologize For, I Know That Seeing A Skeleton, Let Alone A Monster, Can Be Very Startling.”

Birdie shook their head, but Sugar wasn’t having any of that, “I would like to apologize for startling you!”

“if I don’t have anything to apologize for, then you don’t either. but i would like a chance to explain why i had reacted the way i did.”

Sugar tilted his head, and Birdie took that as permission to continue.

“i- hm, where to start?” Birdie pondered out loud, glancing out the window. The trees were very green here, much more green than where they had come from, “about a year ago, the last ‘verse, the creatorverse, had joined the amalgamation that was your- and the rest- world.”

“The one with the video game, right?” Sugar blinked, raising a browbone. He tilted his head, preparing to say something, but Birdie bulldozed on, not allowing themself to get sidetracked from their train of thought. They didn’t even know if they were able to say everything that needed to be said, and they _needed_ Sugar to understand.

“yep. i was a huge fan of the game. wrote fanfiction, drew art, ran a blog, all that jazz. i had fallen in love with a way they had been portrayed in the fandom. the last thing i wanted was to run into people who had, at one point from my perspective, been video game characters.” It was interesting to hear what they had to say, and Sugar couldn’t help but wonder if the human would fall in love with the real him- them. Just for a moment, he couldn’t help but imagine them with his brother. They would be good for each other. “i didn’t know how to deal with, so i decided that the best way was to move to the middle of fuck-off nowhere.”

He immediately shoved the thought away with an embarrassed flush. That was COMPLETELY inappropriate.

“Never Meet Your Heroes.” Sugar seemed distressed but understanding, “So, Was That Your Original Reason To Move To The Middle Of Nowhere?”

“yep.” Birdie said, slumping down, further into their blanket.

“What happened to you?”

Birdie paused, “i… that's- um. hm. that’s a question.” they stared off into the space in front of them, not really seeing what was there, “my plans got put on hold. my- uh, metaphorically speaking, my pot got put on the burner and i never noticed until the water started to boil until someone pulled me out.”

Sugar grimaced.

-

The two cleared their plates while Doc and G were still downstairs, and finished off the last of the tea, leaving nothing left. The rest of the conversation was pleasant, steering clear away from touchy subjects.

“do you get a lot of business?” Birdie asked at one point, shoving a forkful of something Sugar had made into their mouth.

“Yes, But Also No? So Probably Not The Way You’re Thinking But Since I’m The Only Grocery Store In The Town Its The Only Place To Get Food At. I Mostly Keep It As A… Community Pantry??” He had a desperate look on his face, as if he was trying to make Birdie understand something, “There’s Too Few Of Us To Really Run The Grocery Store Properly, So We Use The Community Money To Buy Groceries From Outside Sources And Just Keep The Majority Of The Stuff There. There’s A Kitchen In The Back Room If You Ever Need To Use It.”

Birdie blinked, confused, “wait- uh, uhhh,”

“Its Okay,” Sugar grinned at them, “I Know That It Must Seem Confusing From An Outsiders Perspective. I Don’t Want Anyone To Be In A Position To Go Hungry When I Can Do Something About It, So The Foodstuff In There Is Free, Or You Can Pay What You Want For What You Need, And The Kitchen Is Always Open Too, The Only Trade Off Is That I Must Politely Ask You To Clean Up Whatever Mess You Make And That Non-Foodstuff Is Not Free.”

Birdies face lit up in understanding, “that’s impressive.”

Sugar preened, “Thank You.”

The two looked over as the door creaked open, Docs head poking in, “Ah, dear, G and I realized that we never got your name.”

“oh, do I have to give you my legal name?” Birdie asked.

“Not right now, we just need a name for your file.” Doc smiled reassuringly at them. That was probably illegal, but Birdie appreciated it.

“just- hm, just call me birdie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like writing Doc, he's turning out to be a fun personality lol


	5. Chapter four

Birdie grimaced, their head between their knees and their back against the bottom of the couch. There was a bucket tucked under their legs just in case if they needed to throw up, but they were confident that they weren’t going to. This wasn’t their first rodeo, but this was one of the very few times that they hadn’t just passed out right away.

G rummaged around the kitchen, looking for something light to give to the human, before finally settling on brewing tea for now. He silently hoped that they were feeling up to eating by the time it was done.

Birdie dry heaved, grabbing the bucket and pulling it closer to their face in case something came up.

Doc fluttered around them, checking and double-checking their temperature. They were a little warmer than average but there wasn’t much he could do right now, and he really didn’t like the way they kept shaking and how their eyes kept fluttering close.

With an exhausted groan, Birdie set the bucket down with a _thud_ and leaned their head back. Their ribs _ached,_ it hurt to breathe, the pounding headache they had certainly wasn’t helping. Birdie couldn’t remember the last time they had an… _episode_ like this, they always made sure they ate enough protein but it seemed as if the last couple of days had been especially harsh.

Gentle mint-colored hands carefully picked up the exhausted human and settled them on the couch. Birdie closed their eyes as Doc bundled them up in (several) blankets. Seconds, maybe minutes later, golden hands pinched at their cheeks, gently setting a warm mug in their cold hands. Opening their eyes was a struggle, all they wanted to do was fall asleep, but Doc wasn’t letting them, and Birdie doubted that G was going to let them sleep either.

With a yawn, they lifted the mug to their lips. It wasn’t goldenflower tea this time, but it was just as sweet and just as good. It still wasn’t one Birdie was familiar with. They slowly sipped at it, too tired to really do much else.

“Well, that was an exciting morning!” Doc sat on the other end of the couch, keeping an eye on his patient.

“it’s three in the afternoon.” G commented.

Doc chuckled and waved a dismissive hand, “Its morning somewhere, dear brother.”

Birdie snorted into their mug of tea, missing the relieved looks Doc and G shared.

-

_You walked down the hallway._

_It had been some time since the “crossover”, as you have started calling it, but you still couldn’t help the swell of anxiety in your gut. Something felt very,_ very _wrong. You had already updated every single one of your stories informing your readers that you weren’t comfortable continuing them as the characters in them were real people, and that it didn’t feel right to you to continue writing something that could potentially make them uncomfortable. You had even updated your blog that you were no longer posting on it and decided to remove yourself from the fandom, if it could still be considered a fandom at this point._

_You were sad to see it go, but you knew that it would never leave. Literally. You were living a fanfiction now, and all you wanted was a guarantee that you wouldn’t be running into any versions of the “main cast”._

_A door slammed shut. You sighed, your {redacted} was home and it sounded like he wasn’t very happy. He was rarely happy these days since he lost his job to a monster who could do it better, for cheaper._

“ _{redacted}!” he called your name out. It was too late to go back into your room, he had already seen you, “{redacted} come here!”_

_He-_

_He was grinning for once. You didn’t know why this scared you even more than when he was mad._

“ _-,” he said, “I found people who can- but we have to move, okay? They’re working on- , and they said I can help them-.” he clapped your shoulder and practically pranced off. “They’re picking us up on-!”_

_You opened your mouth to speak-_

Birdie woke up suddenly with tears in their eyes, and static eating away at their dream. The room was quiet, way too quiet to even consider going back to sleep. Gently rubbing their eyes, they looked around.

The bed was ridiculously large, and they knew that if Doc and G were big, whoever this bed was for was even taller, because it was certainly big even by their standards. Birdie considered the other skeletons they knew about, but haven’t met yet. Their stomach pinched in realization that there were simply too many, and that they were all _here_.

Pressure built up behind their eyes, a few tears escaping before they could get a grip on themself.

They never wanted this. They never asked for this to happen.

And now they were stuck.

A bubble of resentment built up in their chest, and they couldn’t understand why. They were ~~safe~~.

They shoved the blankets off of them, too hot to fall asleep now, and pulled a hoodie on. G’s, they thought. One that they had borrowed from him yesterday after their episode. It had gotten too cold in his apartment and there weren’t enough blankets to bundle up in.

They pushed the door to their temporary room open and padded out of the waiting room into the cold night air. The stone was frigid underneath Birdie's bare feet. They grimaced, and looked back at the door, debating whether or not they should go back in and put shoes on.

Squaring their shoulders, Birdie walked on.

It was as dark as it was cold outside, which was to say, very. Birdie walked forward, across the large town square. It was strange being in a large open area after avoiding them for so long.

It didn’t take long for Birdie to hear the sound of rushing water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter was okay, I wasn't entirely too sure about the dream part but *shrugs*  
> Let me know what y'all think!


	6. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Together Breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> G: i don't like the human. i don't even like humans in general. why would i like this one?  
> Doc: *points at Birdie dancing in the kitchen in G's hoodie*  
> G, blushing: Oh No.

Birdie woke up on the couch in Doc’s and G’s apartment. The blanket was scratchy, G’s college hoodie was trying to strangle them, and the light coming through the window was shining directly into their eyes. Despite all the signs pointing to the morning starting off terribly, Birdie grinned. It was the first time in forever that they had woken up feeling this good.

They rolled off the couch, adjusting the hoodie and fixing their shorts, determined to make breakfast for the boys as a thank you for letting them stay for so long.

The room brightened up as Birdie pushed aside the curtains and opened the windows, the morning was simply far too nice to not enjoy the sights and sounds. Humming to themself, they ignored G, and rummaged through the cabinets and refrigerator, looking for something they could work with. With a sigh, they settled on something simple; oven-baked pancakes, eggs, bacon.

With practiced ease, Birdie whisked the ingredients for the pancakes together and quickly poured it into a buttered dish. With a slight twirl, they began working on putting the bacon into a pan and in the oven beside the pancakes.

While they waited to start on the eggs, they pulled their phone out. Grimacing, they cleared all of the unwanted notifications and opened up their email, checking to see if there had been updates on any of the fanfictions they had been subscribed to. It was tempting to open one up, just to see if the characters were accurate to the monsters they had met so far. Their face flushed, discomfort settled in their stomach.

 _too weird,_ they decided, closing out their email.

It was a little early to be starting the eggs, but Birdie didn’t exactly have anything else left to do.

Just as they went to turn the stove on, a disembodied hand grabbed theirs, turning them quickly, pulling them into G’s chest. With a stutter, and bursts of static, the radio on the counter clicked on, soft music poured out of its old speaker. It was a classical, one that Birdie recognized from one of their old ballet lessons from when they hadn’t even reached double digits yet.

As if he had done this a million times, G pulled Birdie away from the stove and into a waltz, leaving far too many hands-on them than necessary. His grip was tight, and he was avoiding looking at their face. As he turned them, Birdie could see more of his hands working on the eggs at the stove.

“g-good mor-morning, G.” Birdie said, their voice barely louder than the radio.

“good morning,” he replied, voice tight, yet still rough with sleep. Birdie could feel one of his hands shifting to their waist, another tracing up their spine, and one wandering around their ribs.

Birdie desperately hoped he didn’t notice the way their breathing was uneven or the way their knees shook ever so slightly. And while they wanted to look into his beautiful golden eyes, they were glad he wasn’t looking at them, or else he would have been able to see just how red he was making their face.

“so what's the occasion?” Birdie asked, mentally slapping their face. Really? That's the best you could come up with?

“what’s _your_ occasion?” he bit back with no real heat.

Birdie giggled awkwardly as he startled at the sound of the chair screeching on linoleum, glaring at the offending piece of furniture. He was… _really_ cute when he pouted.

The song changed into something with a faster pace, and Birdie suddenly found themself being pulled away from G and into Doc’s chest, G’s hands slipping out of reality.

“Good morning, you two!” Doc chirped out, stringing Birdie along for a faster dance, “So what _is_ the occasion?”

Out of the corner of their eye, Birdie could see G pulling the food out of the oven as the timer went off.

“i-i just… woke up feeling good-good?” Birdie said, shrugging.

Doc’s expression softened at that, and gently pushed them into the chair behind them, “Good, I’m glad to hear that.”

And with that, G set a plate of food in front of them.

-

Doc leaned back and closed his eyes, he couldn’t eat another bite anymore. Breakfast had been simple, but the intent behind it had made it magical and incredibly filling. And after that performance this morning between his brother and his patient, Doc was in bliss.

While he knew that his brother was warming up to the human, like an ice cube in late fall, he didn’t expect to see his face lit up like a Christmas tree when G saw Birdie wearing his hoodie, and what seemed like little else.

“so, songbird,” G’s voice broke Doc out of his thoughts, “what’cha got planned for the day?” Birdie finished off the last of the pancake on their plate, clearly thinking about his question. Doc noticed they didn’t even touch the bacon.

“i-i’ll be heading to-to my house, i need to st-start a list of what-what needs to be fix-fixed.” they said, and at that, the two froze, worry making its way into their souls. While they knew that the human would eventually be leaving their care, they had forgotten that also meant leaving their home. The two glanced at each other, a vague look of discomfort flashed across their face.

G shifted in his seat, the only other indication that he was uncomfortable, “why don’t i join you today, darlin’?” he winced at how loud his voice came out.

Birdie blink at him, then smiled, “ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't remember if I've mentioned this yet, but for any readers who have not come from Tumblr, I have a Startale Undervalley Ask and Imagines blog: [ Undervalley Imagines, if the code works ](https://undervalleyimagines.tumblr.com/), and asks/imagined are currently: Open!  
> Also: please let me know what you liked or didn't like about this chapter!  
> Finally: I recently went back to reread my earlier chapters and noticed a slight inconsistency for Sugars heigth, and that has been fixed.


	7. chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another Skeleton Enters!  
> kinda, barely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter took way longer than expected but i'm pretty happy with how it turned out!  
> let me know what y'all think about it :3  
> no animals were harmed in the collapsing of the roof.  
> [ Undervalley Imagines ](https://undervalleyimagines.tumblr.com/)

Birdie winced as they took in their yard. It was much worse than when they first saw it last week. There was a stone fence surrounding the overgrown garden, and the majority of the house was rotting. It was going to have to be completely rebuilt. Birdie felt faint at the mere thought of how much it was going to cost.

G let out a low whistle, “damn, i thought sugar was exaggerating.”

“i swear it didn’t look this bad last time i was here.” Birdie whispered, covering their mouth as they grimaced.

“wasn’t it also fuck-off early in the morning?” G gave them a look, “weren’t you also slowly dying from stab wounds you _still_ won’t tell us about?”

Birdie waved a dismissive hand at that, “shut your face.”

G snickered at the look on their face.

Birdie rolled their eyes and turned to look at their immediate front yard. An ancient stone fence sectioned off a large portion of the front yard. It had definitely been a garden at one point, but the fence was falling apart, and the garden wasn’t much of a garden anymore. There were a ton of weeds growing in it, some of it may be forage-able but they didn’t know which ones were edible and which ones weren’t. That would be another thing to look into.

The trees stood high and proud, casting long shadows. The majority of the front yard was shaded in the early morning, save for golden speckles. Mushrooms grew at the base of a few trees, and Birdie could make out a few bird nests. They would have to keep an eye on those, and probably put up a couple of scarecrows.

Birdie pulled out the small notepad and pencil Sugar had given them and began writing:

\- Weeds

\- Fence

\- Scarecrow

Sighing, they turned around and looked at the house. The stairs were falling apart, and Birdie was incredibly surprised that they hadn’t broken them when they had walked into the house their first night here. The front porch had more holes than they cared to count, and the door was in worse shape than they had thought.

The grass rustled aggressively behind them as they stepped onto the steps. Birdie stiffened as it creaked ominously, and they felt G place a hand on their back.

“careful.” he helpfully said, eyeing the house with caution.

The two grimaced as they walked in, the house was filthy, and Birdie could clearly make out their footprints leading to the chair. The floor was riddled with holes, and the floorboards creaked with every step they took.

G sneezed from the amount of dust in the air.

“fuckin’ hell,” he muttered, pressing closer to the human.

“what the fuck, what the fuck?” Birdie hissed out, startling as one of the cabinet doors fell off with a loud bang. “what the fuck?” They could just barely make out a _scritch scritch scritch_ sound inside of the cabinets, and something moving under the floorboards. “what the fuuuuuck?”

“this whole place is going to have to be torn down and redone.” G said, looking up at the ceiling.

“i don’t suppose you happen to know anyone?” Birdie asked, looking up at him. They shuffled nervously at the expression on his face, even though he wasn’t even looking at them.

“yeah,” he gave a distracted answer, “two carpenters. I can introduce you after this.” he made a noise of disgust as the house settled, dust falling from the rafters. “ _yikes.”_

Birdie resisted shuddering, just being in the house, and seeing how gross it was made them feel disgusting.

The house fell completely silent, almost suspiciously so. The two shared a weary look.

There was a loud ominous creak, and suddenly Birdie was being pulled back into G’s chest. The two of them watched the roof fall, seconds after finding them several feet away from the house. Birdie blinked a few times, adjusting their mind to being outside to suddenly.

Their stomach squeezed and lurched.

“easy.” G said softly as the human sunk to the ground, watching as they paled.

“that’s awful,” they gasped, trying not to heave up their breakfast, “why.”

Shivers wracked through them as their temperature shot up.

“okay, no more teleporting for you.” G said, looking concerned for them, “lets… let’s get you back to Doc.”

Birdie shut their eyes to fight off the dizzy spell and groaned. G gently lifted them and started walking back to the clinic.

“this sucks.” G commented as they passed the bus stop, not sounding like he really meant it.

“you could always set me down.” Birdie quietly grumbled at him, already wiggling to be let down. G adjusted his grip on them and kept walking.

“that’s not what i mean,” he huffed and rolled his eyes, “stop wiggling. i meant that paps and blue are probably going to tear the whole thing down and build a cabin from scratch. i doubt they’re going to let you stay in anything less than perfection.”

The bell at the top of the door jingled as it opened, the reception area completely empty.

“I’ll be with you in a moment!” Doc called out from one of the rooms in the back.

“sounds like Doc’s with a patient.” G said, taking Birdie into the room on the right of the stairs, and set them on the counter. He went back into the reception area for a moment, grabbing a clipboard, then started searching through the drawers for a thermometer.

“are you still feeling nauseous? dizzy?” at Birdies' confirmation, his ghostly hands took the clipboard and started writing.

“my stomach hurts too.” Birdie said, leaning back and closed their eyes.

“al...right…” he opened the last drawer and perked up as he finally found what he was looking for. “perfect. open.” he shoved the thermometer into their mouth, “that needs to go under your tongue.”

Birdie listened to him muttering under his breath as he took the thermometer before a loud ripping sound startled them awake. Ghostly golden hands wrapped a blood pressure cuff around their arm.

“If you’ll follow me into here- oh!” Doc walked into the room, followed by a shorter skeleton wearing a blue plaid shirt, and a wrap around his arm. The new face blinked at the sight of the human and glanced at Doc.

“Birdie darling, are you okay?” Doc asked, patting their face and glancing them over. When he was satisfied that they didn’t have any new injuries, he read over the clipboard.

“the house was a wreck, the roof collapsed.” G distractedly said, poking at Birdie's side. “i ‘ported them out but they had a bad reaction to that.”

As the two medical professionals started talking, Birdie looked over at the skeleton they haven’t yet met uttering a quiet hello. The awkwardness between the two strangers was so thick, both of them were certain that it could be cut.

“Hello, I’m Blue,” the skeleton introduced himself, giving the human a strained grin, “Sorry To Hear About Your House.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> surprise.  
> warnings: slightly suggestive but nothing explicit

“do you think it might be related to their… episode a few days ago?” G asked softly, looking at Birdie to make sure they were distracted. And it looked like that as much as Blue didn’t want to, he was talking to them about what to do about their house.

Doc sighed, “Its definitely a possibility.” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Honestly, this whole situation is vexing. They're a runaway, they have incredibly crude magic suppressants _etched_ into them, the knife wounds, the voids odd fascination with them...”

“sometimes they speak in their sleep.” G added, reading through the notes they’ve gathered since bringing the human into their home, “some of the things they say are concerning.”

G frowned, “i think they might have been apart of Hounds project.”

“What makes you say that?”

“i found this in their laundry.” G held up an I.D. attached to a lanyard, with a familiar logo on it. It clearly stated that they didn’t work for the company but didn’t offer much more information than that. “i think they’re related to whatever happened to the facility that Hound was working in.”

-

“So we’ve concluded that you’re allergic to the void,” Doc said cheerily.

Birdie blinked, watching Blue wave goodbye at them as he slipped out the door. That was an… unexpected answer. From all the fanfiction and theories they had read before this mess, they could take a pretty good guess as to what the void was. But to be allergic to it? It wasn’t something they had considered.

“huh.” Birdie drew her hands into her lap, “that… what exactly does that mean?”

Doc wiggled, drumming his fingertips on his clipboard, “I’m So Glad You Asked, Dear! In Simplest Terms, The Void Is A Place Between Space And Time, Between Worlds, And My Brother And I, As Well As Several Others, Can Poke Into It Using It As A Shortcut To Get From One Place To Another, Or To Summon Beings From It. From What Has Been Studied, It Also Has A Physical (and possibly sentient) Presence, One That We Believe You Are Allergic To.”

“you aren’t allergic to _our_ magic, or else you would have had a reaction to when we healed you or fed you,” G said, shoving his hands into his pockets, “unfortunately though, we don’t have the equipment to do more testing.”

“The Good News Is, It's Very Easy To Avoid The Void,” Doc said, grinning, “Because You Don’t Know How To Teleport!”

“also please don’t disappear by yourself again.”

Birdie looked at G in confusion, “what?”

“what?”

“what did you-”

“Wow! Would You Look At The Time!” Doc tapped his watchless wrist, “Its Time For Lunch!”

-

Birdie sunk to their shoulders in warm water and closed their eyes. Doc had finally given them the green light to take baths, instead gently wiping down with a rag so they wouldn’t cause any further damage. They sighed deeply, sinking further down into the water until the water came just below their nose.

Leaning their head back they let their mind go blank, just wanting to relax for once. Birdie was almost certain that this was the longest they’ve gone without Doc’s and G’s presence since they had arrived here. It let them think, about their plans, about the cabin, about-

Birdie's eyes flew open as a hand caressed their leg just above their knee. They gripped the sides of the tub and pulled themselves up as something brushed against their neck. Their body flushed with unexpected emotions.

The light above the sink flickered, and a weight settled in the tub, pressing against them. Their soul twisted, making them gasp. The shadows deepened, reaching out towards them.

Yanking the plug out, Birdie stood up abruptly and wrapped a towel around them, drying off as fast as they could, and got dressed.

Yanking the door open-

“woah!”

they flinched backward as they nearly ran into G.

“are you okay darlin’?” G asked, taking in their flushed face, “you look like you saw something.”

“bathrooms haunted,” Birdie said, then looked surprised that had even come out of their mouth, “uh, bathrooms haunted, something got in the tub with me. it was weird. lights were flickering. i’m very uncomfortable right now.”

“what?” G glanced into the bathroom, there weren’t any obvious signs that it was haunted, but the human was shaking like a leaf despite the mirror still fogged from the heat, “that’s… huh. okay.”

Birdie blinked, and edged away from the door so G could get in, “you believe me?”

“you haven’t exactly given me a reason not to,” G said, distracted as he poked around, “besides, i’d be a bad host if i didn’t look anyways.”

He took out his phone and took a picture of the mirror before taking a towel and wiping away the fog that clung to it. A shampoo bottle fell, and G disappeared for a moment, then reappeared. Birdie snickered quietly, covering their mouth when G turned and pouted at them.

The tub finished draining by the time he started poking around there, “you said something was in the tub with you?”

“mh-hm,” birdie confirmed, “i could feel it against my back.”

“Felt What?” Doc asked, scaring Birdie, “G, What On Earth Are You Doing?”

“something was in here with birdie.” G said at the same time Birdie said “bathroom’s haunted.”

“That Sounds Unpleasant.” Doc said, pulling Birdie away from the door and to the couch, “Are You Okay, Dear?”

“it was spooky.” Birdie tucked their legs under them and pulled a blanket into their lap, “it felt weird.”

G came out of the bathroom, deep in thought, “something was definitely in there, and I have no idea what we can do about it.”

Doc sighed, “I’ll get dinner started. Have you talked to Blue again about the cabin?”

“i’m meeting up with him wednesday on the property to get it checked out, but i’m pretty sure that he’s gonna say the same thing that G did. i’m not surprised though, that thing has been standing since, like, forever and hasn’t been kept up with at all.”

“so it’s been in your family for a long time?” G asked, settling next to them.

“Not mine, my friends.” Birdie explained, taking a mug of tea from Doc, “she gave it to me recently but its technically still hers.”

There was a pause of silence after that.

“do you want one of us to go with you when you meet up with Blue?”

“nah, I think i’ll be okay. i’ve been feeling a lot better the last few days.”

“That’s Good. Oh, Dinner's Done!”


	9. chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm just as surprised as y'all that I've got another chapter out so quick.  
> also G's hands have a mind of their own, I don't make the rules.  
> Edit:[ my main tumblr page is here ](https://unholykrowcollection.tumblr.com/)  
> [And my startale tumblr is here](https://undervalleyimagines.tumblr.com/)

Doc put a small backpack on Birdie, filled with snacks, lunch, and several water-bottles, “I’ve Packed Everything You might need, including but not limited to-”

“i think they get it doc,” g said, grinning from his bedroom door, “no need to mother hen them.”

“hey g, aren’t you the one who’s insisting on walking me over there?” Birdie asked, adjusting the straps on the borrowed backpack, snickering when he didn’t answer.

“look-” G walked backwards into his room and closed the door.

“I Would Still Prefer If You Would Let One Of Us Stay With You,” Doc said, wringing his hands, looking at his- at the human in concern.

“i’ll be fine, doc. I’ve got your number, g’s number, and the clinics landline in my phone, and it’s completely charged,” Birdie said, patting his arm, “i’ll be fine. plus, if I can’t call for any reason, i’m sure that blue or papyrus will.”

“yeah bro,” G said, emerging from his room, pulling a hoodie on, “don’t baby the human, they’ve got this.”

“says the skeleton insisting on holding my hand while we walk over there,” Birdie snickered, holding up their hand to show off a glowing golden disembodied hand already wrapped around theirs. It fizzled out of reality as G pouted.

“that was an accident,” G said, “plus I need to stay here and talk to Doc about a few orders we need to place.”

“I Wasn’t Aware Of Any Orders.”

“that’s because I haven’t talked to you about them yet.”

“g! we’re gonna be late!”

“i’m coming!”

-

Dead leaves crunched under their shoes as Birdie and G walked to the dilapidated cabin. The cool air nipped at Birdie's neck, chilling them to the bone. G glanced at them.

“you’re not used to this weather, are you?”

“i came from way down south, so no, not really.”

G sighed. He knew that the south didn’t get nearly as cold in the winter as it did up here. He and Doc would have to keep an eye on Birdie to make sure they survived their first winter here. If right now was any indication, Birdie was _not_ prepared for whatever was to come.

“and you’re sure you don’t want me to stay?” G asked, spotting the two excitable skeletons as they arrived at Birdie’s property.

“you’re already holding my hand, i’ve got yours, Docs, and the clinic's number in my phone,” they said, holding up their hand that was gripping one of his, “i think i’ll be fine.”

“i have no idea how that got there.” g said, blushing as he shoved his hands into his pockets, “hey blue, paps.”

“G! I’M SURPRISED TO SEE YOU OUT HERE,” Papyrus exclaimed, his loud voice causing Birdie to shrink further into the borrowed hoodie, “ARE YOU STAYING?”

“nah, i’ve gotta get back and talk to doc about a couple of orders,” G said, then glanced at Birdie, “if anything feels off,” he pointed at them, “call me. Or doc. I mean it.”

“you’re still holding my hand.”

“i have no idea what you’re talking about.”

And Birdie watched as he ‘ported away.

“So we need to tear down your cabin and completely redo it.”

-

G leaned against the wall and crossed his legs, scratching the back of his skull. Water ran as Doc cleaned the dishes that had been used that morning for breakfast, quietly humming to himself as he waited for G to start talking.

A mint-colored and turned the radio off as G continued to be silent, despite his claims of needing to talk about ordering something, which Doc suspected to be false, and probably wanted to talk more about the haunted bathroom.

“Is This About The Bathroom?” Doc asked, placing the last plate on the drying rack. G slid down to the ground and hummed a confirmation, “There Wasn’t Anything In There, Was There?”

“nope.”

“So What Do You Think?”

“i have no fuckin clue.”

“They Were Terrified Though, And That’s Why You Said There Was Something In There.”

“yep.”

There was a moment of silence between the two, the entire situation hanging over them heavily.

“You Want To Help Them Get Better.”

“absolutely.”

There was another beat of silence between the two, the only sounds coming from Doc walking to the couch. He sat down and dragged a hand down his face. Something was eating at him, but he couldn’t find the right words to voice.

Eventually, he spoke, “I tried calling Hound.”

“and?”

“Her number is disconnected.”

“did you try the others?”

“All Disconnected. Then I asked Sans about them, to see if he had heard anything from them but...” Doc trailed off, but G heard what he didn’t say.

“shit.”

“He Didn’t Remember Any Of Them.”

-

“personally, i’d like to keep it small and simple.” Birdie said, biting into her sandwich, “it’s just me and I don’t need a whole lot of space.”

Papyrus nodded, jotting down notes on the notepad they weren’t entirely sure where he had pulled out, and scratched his jaw, “I THINK WE CAN WORK WITH THAT.”

“Have you been staying in the cabin this whole time?” Blue asked, looking at said cabin in disgust from his spot on the picnic blanket.

“nah, i’ve been staying with doc and g.” Birdie said, “well, I mean I stayed the first night in the cabin but they wouldn’t let me go back. i’m pretty sure they’re gonna keep me hostage until the cabin is finished.”

The two skeletons looked at them blankly, “SO THE CABIN IS ALL YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW?”

“yeah pretty much. i would’ve started on my garden but doc hasn’t cleared me for any heavy work yet.”

The two skeletons glanced at each other, then back at the human, “We can start working this evening after we agree on the layout.”

“i’m all ears!”

-

G leaned against a tree, watching Birdie talk about layouts with Blue and Papyrus, with Blue taking the lead on design talk. While the conversation was strained, both sides unsure of the other, G could easily see how this could benefit them. The town was small, populated solely by skeletons, some hostile and some too hurt to bother socializing with the rest.

If there was something G was certain about, it was that Birdie was going to make a splash in their little town, whether they wanted to or not.

"g! come get your hand!"


	10. chapter nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and another skeleton.  
> help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, i'm over at [UndervalleyImagines](https://undervalleyimagines.tumblr.com/) and [UnholyKrowCollection!](https://unholykrowcollection.tumblr.com/)  
> And thank you to everyone who commented! I loved reading them and the helped motivate me to get these chapters out so quickly!  
> Warning: more suggestive stuff but nothing explicit or very detailed.

_Birdie shut the water off, content with how much water was in the tub, and how hot it was. They had started rubbing shampoo into their hair when the door squeaked open, [Redacted] walked in, and took off ___ shirt._

_Sharp claws ran through Birdie’s hair, another set trailing along their legs. They moved towards the front of the tub so [Redacted] had space to get in too. Another hand scratched Birdies back, gentle not to break their skin._

“ _Hi darlin’,” [Redacted] greeted softly, pressing ___ face into Birdies soapy hair, “Long time no see.”_

“ _You saw me earlier,” Birdie said, pushing their lover away from them so they could rinse off, “Is everything okay? Did you get into another fight with my brother?”_

“ _Something like that,” another hand rested on their waist, “You know I never meant to scare you, right?”_

“ _If this is about last night, babe trust me I wasn’t scared.”_

_[Redacted] laughed, “Promise me you’ll take care of yourself?”_

“ _I can certainly do my best.” Birdie said, turning around and pressing a kiss to-_

_-_

Early morning light filtered through the living room curtains. Birdie sniffled, tears falling from their eyes. As they woke up more the dream faded away, leaving them with the feeling of losing something ~~someone~~ important. Sitting up, they wiped away their tears.

“ _Promise me?”_

They stood up on shaky legs, and dug around their backpack, looking for a pair of pants to change in to. Tugging them on, they dug around a bit more and found their notebook and pencil. Leaving a message on the refrigerator, they slipped their shoes on and headed downstairs, out the front door with the faintest jingle of the bell.

Birdie walked down the road that was becoming more and more familiar to them with every step they took. Every crunch of a leaf brought them closer and closer to the cabin, to the garden, to what they hoped to call home soon.

Arriving, they sat down, back leaning against the stone fence that enclosed what would be the garden one day and put their pencil to paper, jotting down half-formed ideas, vague concepts of characters, tiny doodles of whatever came to mind and began creating a short story.

A quarter of the notebook and two hours later, Birdie looked up and rolled their neck, feeling it pop from sitting in one position for such a long time. They nearly squeaked when they noticed Blue sitting next to them, lost in his own world sketching out more layout plans. They watched him doodle a for another minute, right up until Papyrus showed up, a large hammer in his hand.

He waved at them as he walked up the steps, and began demolishing the house. The wall came down with a loud crash and a ton of dust. Birdie felt Blue jump beside them, looking up quickly. Another wall went down, and Papyrus cackled.

Blue glanced at Birdie, and held up his notepad, “Would you like to go over layouts while Papyrus demo’s?”

“yeah, sure.”

-

“DOC I LOST THE HUMAN AGAIN!”

A crash sounded from downstairs. G winced, he had completely forgotten that Doc had an appointment.

“THERE’S A HUMAN HERE?”

And Black sounded furious.

-

“ooh, I really like that-” Birdie looked up, just in time to watch G port in and immediately trip over a stray rock.

“birdie holy fuck,” G crawled over to the two and sat next to Birdie, pressed up against them, “i’ve made a mistake.”

“oh no,” Birdie said, glancing around, then shrinking into their hoodie as they heard someone yelling before they could so whoever it was.

“Doc is trying to hold him back, but...” Birdie lifted their notebook as G decided to lay across their lap, “Black’s too angry, and I don’t think he’s gonna stop until he finds you.”

Blue groaned and facepalmed.

“you know that’s not good, right? you know that’s really not great?” Birdie slumped forward, pressing their face into G’s back, “how could you do this to me?”

“i’m so sorry,” there was a pause in the conversation, “hey can i get up now?”

“no, if I'm getting yelled at you’re staying.”

“I’m going to help Papyrus with the house,” Blue quickly got up as the yelling became more clear.

“-SUPPOSED TO CALL A TOWN MEETING! WHY DIDN’T YOU _STOP_ THEM FROM-” Birdie could only assume Black paused to let Doc speak, “I _DON’T CARE! I HAVE TO LIVE IN THIS TOWN!”_

“Can You Please Calm Down?” Doc spoke, exasperated, “You’re Going To Terrify Them.”

“GOOD.”

“No, Not Good, They’re Delicate,” Birdie froze as they finally saw them, watching as Black looked at the house both pissed off and confused, “I Spent A Very Long Time Stitching Them Back Together And Getting Them Back Onto A Healthy Diet That won't Kill Them. If You Fuck That Up...”

Black glared at Doc, marching right up to Birdie and G, who was still laying across their lap. Birdie tensed, mentally preparing themself for whatever Black wanted to yell at them about. His purple eyelights focused on them, his face twisting into a sneer. Puffing up, he crossed his arms and Birdie couldn’t help notice how… would muscular be the right word?

“I Don't Know Who You Are, Or What You Think You’re- Is That G’s Hoodie?” Black stopped to look at them incredulously

“yeah i-i’ve been- um- staying with-with them f-for the last, uh, for the last… t-two weeks, I think, now,” Birdie fidgeted with G’s hand, curling his fingers into his palm, then smoothing them out.

“You’re Shitting Me,” he said blandly, his hands curling into fists.

“n-nope. i’m bar-barely clear-cleared to- um- leave the clinic,” Birdie shrugged, immediately wanting to be anywhere but here.

“Two Weeks?” he whirled around to jab a finger into Docs chest, “TWO FUCKING WEEKS?! YOU’VE HAD THEM FOR TWO FUCKING WEEKS AND DIDN’T TELL FUCKING ANYONE?”

“Technically,” Doc edged away from the small, furious skeleton, “Two weeks, and some days.”

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally got motivated enough to write this out  
> Thanks to everyone who commented, kudos'ed, bookmarked, and read, I really appreciate y'all!

“MOVE OUT.”

“black! what is wrong with you?!”

Birdie shrunk back from his scathing glare, and looked down to G’s plaid shirt. They should have known that everything was going for too easy, far too good to be true when they had first come here. Doc and G were kind, almost to a fault and Birdie believed that they couldn’t truly hate someone, and Sugar was incredibly sweet but Birdie couldn’t help but feel like a fool for believing the bubble they had been in for the last two weeks and something days would extend to the rest of the people in the town.

Birdie let G get up this time, bringing their knees up to their chin as the trio started yelling at each other, the magic hand holding theirs fizzled out.

“NO, I’M NOT GOING TO STAND FOR THIS!”

“IT’S NOT-”

* * *

“ _OUR CHOICE! Now Get over it, [redacted]. The humans are staying in our wing, and that’s final.”_

“ _this is bullshit. I don’t see why we have to put up with a total arrogant asshole and his scaredy cat baby sibling who can’t say a single damn word without either fu-fu-fucking up their words or doesn’t even finish their sentences.”_

“ _Crimson! That Was Uncalled For!”_

“ _well its true!”_

“ _y’gotta admit, the stutters kinda cute though.” there was a hum of agreement to that one, much to said humans surprise._

“ _Can it, Hound.” a snarl came from Hounds sister._

_[redacted] knew that they shouldn’t be listening in on the conversation, but in their defense, they had already been curled up hiding underneath the desk before the group of skeletons had barged in using it as an impromptu meeting room._

“ _We Shouldn’t Judge The Sibling By Their Brothers Actions. We Don’t Have Enough Information To Know What Their Opinions Are.” There was a slight pause, “And_ You _Of All People-”_

“ _shut your fucking face.” there was a_ pop _, and a pressure in the room was released. Someone sighed and left the room, followed by another pop, and another, followed by more footsteps leaving the room._

_[redacted] tensed as another pair of footsteps walked towards their hiding spot, long legs suddenly coming into view. They watched as the skeleton leaned against the wall facing the desk, and slid down slowly, Hounds eyelights looking right at them as she sat._

“ _sorry you had to hear that. They aren’t, uh, good at making sure the rooms empty before usin’ it.”_

“ _i-it’s fi-fine.” they chocked out before clamming up._

_Hound sighed, “mind if I sit with you fer a bit?”_

* * *

A heavy gloved hand gripped Birdies shoulder, gently pulling them up.

“I want to mark out a few of the designs we picked out, just to give you an idea of the room sizes.” Blue said, leading them away from argument that was still escalating, “Since we’re going with the foundation that was already there,” he gestured to the vague outline of where the cabin used to be, “which Papyrus insists on upgrading by the way, I can just use my bone attacks to outline where the rooms would be to get an estimate of the room sizes and what you think would work best for you.”

Birdie nodded, wringing their hands together and flinching as they heard what sounded like a physical fight break out behind them.

“Blacks an ass, and he’s constantly looking for a fight nowadays. I’m sorry you got caught up in his drama.” Papyrus said, coming up on their other side, “We can’t reuse most of the materials we tore down, they were infested with god knows what, but what we can do...”

Birdie focused on Papyrus’ voice as he talked about what his recommendations were, noticing that it was deeper than Sugars, and that he had a slight lisp. Sugars lisp was definitely stronger than Papyrus’ but Birdie guessed that the braces didn’t help. It was interesting how two people who were so similar could be so incredibly different if someone bothered to pay attention.

“We understand that you currently don’t have a way to get electricity to your home, so we wanted to know what your plans were if you were going to go solar, or have it wired to your house.”

“There’s also a pretty big stream nearby if you wanted a water wheel.” Blue pointed out the stream just visible through the trees, “Concerning your financial situation, the water wheel might be the most convenient for you to consider.”

“He means we can build that too and we can add the cost to your house as it is pretty essential, especially with the winter coming up fast. You’ll need the heat.” Papyrus said.

“Y-you you guys w-wou-would do t-that?”

“Well,” Blue gave you a small grin, “It would reflect poorly on us skeletons if we let the only human in our town die of hypothermia. I don’t think the Doctor Duo would appreciate that after healing you up.”

“W-water wh-wheel i-it is!”

“Perfect!” Papyrus clapped his hands together, “Now, onto floor plans!”

* * *

Birdie pressed an ice pack onto Docs bruised jaw, rolling their eyes as he grumbled about “that entitled little half pint bastard”, and took up the spot next to him on the couch. The radio was playing softly in the background, windows opened to let in a nice breeze while they still could, and the sounds of two skeletons bitching about their new minor injuries was just truly the icing on top of the cake.

“i-i’m just surpri-surprused _surprised_ tha-that you bo-both took him on-on at the sam-me time… a-and lost.”

“we didn’t lose! We didn’t lose, we just didn’t win.” G “corrected” from the bathroom, where Birdie could see that he had his face shoved nearly against the mirror dabbing anti-bacterial cream onto his cut.

“So-sounds a lo-lot like loosing.” Birdie snickered, “but thank you.”

“He Shouldn’t Have Been An Ass.”

“an-and now i-i know to avo-avoid him. Le-lesson learned.” Birdie shrugged, “No big deal.”

Doc grimaced, “Honestly, He’s Not The Only One You Need To Avoid.”

G wandered in, finally, his face looking as if he had tried to shave his face for the first time, and failed. The couch dipped slightly as he sat on Birdies other side, leaned his head back and sighed.

“everyone is going to know your here by breakfast tomorrow.”

“ugh.”


End file.
